The Comic Arts Brooklyn Experience - part 1

Some days ago I asked to cartoonists, publishers and retailers to talk about their experience at Comic Arts Brooklyn, the comics festival organized by Desert Island in New York on November 9th. These are the answers I received and I truly want to thank everyone for their contribution. I really really really appreciate it. 

We begin with Gabe Fowler of Desert Island comic shop, who organized the event: 

"We're feeling triumphant and exhausted after a brief but amazing show! Seeing so many favorite artists and publishers together is always a mind-blowing experience, and we're still recovering a few days later. A sincere thanks to all of the individuals who made this the most fun day of the year!"

Pat Aulisio, cartoonist (Bowman, Xeno Kaiju, F'real Real) and the mind behind Yeah Dude Comics:

"I've been to the former Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival every year since its inception and it is consistently the best show for weird artist driven comics. This year was no exception. The level of craft is at its peak, everyone has a risograph or is an excellent screenprinter. I came to debut Josh Burggraf's Thinking About the Afterwards, Justice Cop (my 24-hour comic) and Josh Bayer and I's collaborative comic The Greater Good.

Thinking About the Afterwords by Josh Burggraf

John Pham's Epoxy and Conor Stechschulte's The Dormitory were both examples of taking printing process to the utmost artist craft extreme and to me stuck out as my two best purchases of the show. Another busy year where the body heat/smell increased as the day went on. Crowds were insane, I didn't get to talk to about half the people I wanted to, since the few times I walked around most tables had four people crowding them at all day long.

There was actually an instance where a younger college age looking guy took five comics off my table, i told him how much they were, he told me would love to pay but he doesn't have money and he turned around quickly and shuffled off between people, the crowd was to big for me to rush around the table to try grab him and to make a scene. There was a girl that witnessed this whole thing and was shocked about what just happened, she then bought stuff off me which I assumed was a pity-buy. I still have never been to an afterparty, me and my Philly crew of Ian Harker and Box Brown went home right after the show with a car ride full of conversations about tumblr, pro-wrestling, drugs, and of course comics. 

This is a pic of stuff I got".

Box Brown of Retrofit Comics, author of Beach Girls, Killman (mini kuš! #6) and Inside the Box, an Italian anthology published by Lokzine:

"It was a really amazing show. Unbelievable really. We were busy non-stop from the moment it opened. There was something great at every table. In the few moments I was able to get away from my table I picked up the new issue of Epoxy by John Pham, a multi-colored risograph printed comic with a mini-comic inside and other cool extras. Retrofit debuted Zejian Shen's Keep Fresh and Roman Muradov's Picnic Ruined was selling well too. The best show of the year for me".

Picnic Ruined by Roman Muradov

Heather Benjamin, artist and author of last Monster anthology covers (here you can find my review). She had also an exhibition at Mishka during the festival:

"I thought it was fantastic this year - its previous incarnation, the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics fest, had been amazing too, but i thought this year topped any previous one by far. The turnout was amazing and the programming was great, there were so many amazing special guests, and the overall vibe was just really high levels of enthusiasm and excitement on everyone's part, which felt really great. There was such a high volume of amazing work in just one building that it was really hard to get around and make sure you spent enough time at every table to see all the incredible work everyone had to show. There's really nothing else like it. I also personally did pretty well this year. I debuted a new broadsheet newsprint zine, called Delinquent, which was published by Floating World out of Portland, Oregon, and sold out of my copies at the fest. From what I can tell, a lot of my peers who were tabling also were selling out of their work by the end of the day. It was amazing". 

Matt Moses of Hic & Hoc Publications:

"CAB was a smashing success. Gabe did an amazing job on all ends. The day ran seamlessly with a steady stream of attendees. Hic & Hoc debuted Amy Jean Porter's Spider (Comma) Man, a nice thick comic booklet about a spider and a man with fantastic letterpress covers. I wrote this scene report here: 

http://hicandhoc.tumblr.com/post/66595387599/cab-scene-report#notes".

Spider, Man by Amy Jean Porter

So now you can check Matt's report and then come back here in a few days for the second part of this CAB special!